1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to communication devices and, more particularly, to communication devices with multi-channel communication.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Mobile terminals, or mobile (cellular) telephones, for mobile telecommunications systems like GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS, and CDMA2000 have been used for may years now. In the older days, mobile terminals were used almost exclusively for voice communication with other mobile terminals or stationary telephones. More recently, the use of modern terminals has been broadened to include not just voice communication, but also various other services and applications such as www/wap browsing, video telephony, electronic messaging (e.g. SMS, MMS, email, instant messaging), digital image or video recording, FM radio, music playback, exercise analysis, electronic games, calendar/organizer/time planner, word processing, etc. Furthermore, the modern terminals have local connectivity abilities, such as Bluetooth, allowing the mobile terminals to communicate with a wide array of devices.
With this great number of applications, user interaction naturally becomes complex and somewhat difficult. For example, in conventional terminals when a certain type of communication is received (e.g. a cellular communication, MMS, SMS, IM, etc.) a reply to that communication is made using the same communication protocol. For example, if user A initiates a cellular call that is received by a mobile phone of user B, user B either picks up the call or rejects the call. Where, for example user B is in a situation that user B cannot talk on the phone, user B may decline the call so that the call is sent into the user B's voice mail or user B may not answer the call without any explanation. User A may keep trying to call user B, creating a constant interruption to User B's activity (e.g. a meeting, in a movie theater).
To keep user A from interrupting user B's activities, user B may either answer the call, return the call to user A via another cellular communication, decline the call or turn the mobile phone off. User B may also respond to the call, after declining the call or at a later time, through a completely separate communication, such as an instant message that is unrelated to the received call. In conventional communication devices to send a separate communication, such as an instant message, in response to an incoming call a user must decline or reject the call or wait for the call to stop ringing and then search through the menus of the communication device to find the instant message function of the communication device. In conventional communication devices, if there is more than one service provider associated with instant messaging, the user has to find the appropriate screen or interface within the communication device that corresponds to the desired service provider as each service provider has its own dedicated user interface.
One attempt to simplify the use of mobile terminals is to use two dimensional menus, allowing the user to see a large number of selectable applications simultaneously. However, switching from one application to the next is still a process which requires relatively intense attention by the user, even for the most common applications.
Consequently, there is a need to provide a mobile communication terminal and method providing a user interface with a simpler and more intuitive selection for replying to incoming communications.